Elizabeth Prater

[Tom_Wescott]

McCarthy made Mary sleep in a gateway? Man, no wonder she wouldn't pay her rent!

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Cap'n Jack]

Tom, I would have thought that a court jester would have known what a 'court' was in the LVP.

[Natalie Severn]

tut tut Stephen,"Who cares?'
get that anorak back on

[Tom_Wescott]

Actually, upon re-reading the reporter is saying that Prater lived INSIDE the court and above the gateway, which would in fact put her right over Mary's room. As opposed to above the gateway OUTSIDE Miller's court. So this is yet another report supporter the inquest paper.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Cap'n Jack]

Whatever mescaline you are on tonight, Tom.
Prater lived above a court entrance, Kelly under, but if you had screamed murder I would have detained the white rabbit immediately.
One makes you...

[Tom_Wescott]

AP

"Gateway in Miller's Court', not 'Gateway to Miller's court'. You said yourself that a reporter would know the difference.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Sam Flynn]

Whatever mescaline you are on tonight, Tom.
Prater lived above a court entrance, Kelly under

It's all relative, and rather depends on the direction in which you're facing, AP, or whether you're going in or out

I'd be more inclined to think in terms of Kelly's room being near the exit from Miller's Court, as I'm sure would all the residents. Evidently Mrs Cox classified the outer part of the archway as the entrance to Miller's Court in her testimony, when she tells of her own journey from Commercial into Dorset Street and thence into Miller's Court itself ("as I entered the Court I saw deceased...", "They made no sound going up the Court [i.e. going up the passageway]...").

[Sam Flynn]

"Gateway in Miller's Court', not 'Gateway to Miller's court'.

There was no "gateway" in Miller's Court as such - unless Prater was into differential calculus and was talking about infinitely small slices of the passageway, Tom. Either that, or the reporter was on mescaline

[perrymason]

So according to AP's press reference, Elizabeth may well have had that archway window in her room....like I suggested a thousand posts ago, and was told that was impossible. At least Sam entertained it.

So Im off this thread too....she always had a courtyard facing window, regardless of any others that might have been in the room...and before someone says there couldnt be any other window, see point 1.

Cheers.

[Cap'n Jack]

This is from a later Old Bailey trial:

'By the COURT. The lodging-house is almost facing the shop—it would be difficult to say accurately at that time of night whether they were coming towards us or going from us.'

This refers to Crossingham's Lodging House, and McCarthy's shop.
My understanding is that Kelly's room was partioned from the store room to the shop, thereby Prater would have been living above the shop, facing Crossingham's.
Nicht wahr, Sam?

[Cap'n Jack]

I just don't see Miller's Court like everyone else.
I see it like this:

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

Maybe this will help solve the riddle of the location of Elizabeth Prater's room.

Evening News, November 9th 1888—

"The Press Association says: At half past ten this morning, the dead body of a woman with her head almost severed from her body was found in an untenanted outhouse or shed in Dorset court, Dorset street, Commercial street, Spitalfields."

Regards,

Simon

[Stephen Thomas]

"The Press Association says: At half past ten this morning, the dead body of a woman with her head almost severed from her body was found in an untenanted outhouse or shed in Dorset court, Dorset street, Commercial street, Spitalfields."

Hello Simon

I see what you're getting at here (Prater living over a shed) but this report is just hopelessly wrong. Mary Kelly's room was not untenanted nor an outhouse nor a shed and nor was it in Dorset Court.

My best wishes to you

[Simon Wood]

Hi Stephen,

Yes, all the incidental detail is wrong, but I was nevertheless intrigued by the use of the terms outhouse and shed. I've always thought that the gated room at the front of 26 Dorset Street—being an integral part of the building—would have been referred to as a storeroom.

Just my two bob's worth. I think this one will run and run.

Regards,

Simon

[Cap'n Jack]

Kelly's murder in 'Dorset Court' reported in:

Croydon Advertiser.
Echo.
East and Westham Gazette.
Evening News.